Book Review: Last Child in the Woods

What a fantastic book!!! Last Child in the Woods looks at the lives of today’s kids and exposes what the author calls the nature deficit disorder. Nature deficit disorder is not a medical condition, it is the description of the human costs of alienation from nature. This alienation damages children and shapes adults, families and communities. The author even links the lack of nature in children’s lives to common trends, such as obesity, ADD and depression. He shares the evidence of the deficit and ultimately shares how to restore not only our children, but ourselves back to nature.

He also shares that there is proven research to confirm that environment-based education dramatically improves standardized test scores and grade point averages and develops skills in problems solving, critical thinking and decision making. Even creativity is stimulated by childhood experiences in nature.

Sending kids outside to play has become increasingly difficult. Computers, television and video games compete for their time. Schools are assigning more and more homework. Areas are being developed which means less and less natural space to roam and explore. And parent’s fears of strangers, traffic or virus carrying mosquitos are keeping kids indoors.

I was so challenged, inspired and impassioned to make sure that Judah does not grow up void of a connection to nature. This book opened my eyes to the very reality that we live so out of connection with the natural world. There may be trees, grass, fields, or streams all around us but do we daily connect with them. Do I make the outside world the most important place for Judah to be? Or do I allow my priorities to keep me so busy that it ultimately keeps him locked up in school, the car, the house? Long long ago, even before I was a kid (so I would say I grew up with this to a degree) kids wanted to be outside more than anything else. They would wake up and head outdoors and wouldn’t come in until bed time. They climbed trees, made forts, caught bugs and just existed outside. For me, I spent a lot of time outside with my neighborhood friends but I wasn’t free to roam. I spent much of my childhood camping and in natural environments and some of my best memories are from those times. Even now, as an adult, I love nature and my soul longs to be in it.

I want Judah to grow up outdoors and to connect to nature deeply. I know that nature will shape him in to the kind of man he will become, whether that is athletic, artistic, musical, or educational. He’s 18 months and would live outside if he could and I don’t ever want to see him stray from that. I don’t ever want him to choose t.v. or video games over the trees, the birds and the fresh air. I don’t ever want to see him lose this love and spark.